The 4 Components of a Complete Golf Game

There are 4 components of a complete game.  Most players only focus on swing and mechanics.  We blame our swing when things go bad on the course.

In this episode, I want to shine light on the other 32 areas that greatly affect your score.

And, if you want to play better it is worth working on ALL four areas to create a complete golf game.

Learn about current workshops at KathyHartWood.com

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Mastering Your Golf Brain - A Guide to Self-Coaching

Mastering Your Golf Brain - The Workbook

Mental Golf Journal - A Range for Your Brain

Are all available at KathyHartWood.com/book

Email Kathy at Kathy@KathyHartWood.com

Website: KathyHartWood.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Above Par. I'm your host, Kathy Hartwood. I show you how to take more of your talent to the golf course without practicing harder, taking more lessons, or buying new equipment. I show you how to end the frustration of underperforming so you can start playing to your potential. This is where you are going to learn how to think above par so you can play below par. Let's get to it. Hi my golf friends, and welcome back to Above Par. It's nice to have you here. I want to give a big shout out to all the people who are sending me notes and messages and emails about how much this podcast has been helping them in their golf game and their life, actually. I really appreciate it. It's nice to know that it's hitting home, that you're finding some value out of what I'm sharing. Um so I really appreciate you sending in those messages. And this is the other thing I want to tell you is that you have one brain. And in this podcast, I share with you how to manage your brain and deal with your emotions and different scenarios. But you can change the subject matter for the most part, even though I'm talking about golf. Any area that you want to level up or change the results that you're getting, just change the subject matter, whether it's your job or your relationships or your health or fitness or anything you have going on around the house or pickleball. And start using some of these tools and tactics to help you level up in those different areas of your life. Your brain likes simple and easy. And I try and keep everything simple and easy. It's not like we have a certain component of our brain that's just focused on golf, and we have to learn this whole new skill set that's really complicated. It's not. We're just playing a game that's a little complicated and not always so kind. So take advantage of what I'm sharing in this in this podcast and use it to different areas of your life. Keep it simple. It's all about just thinking intentionally and managing your thoughts and emotions, being onto your brain. Most of us just aren't onto our brain. We listen to it, we listen to the back of our brain and all the crappy thoughts that it serves up for us, and then we feel horrible and we stop moving forward to what we want to produce in our lives or your golf game. I want to make sure that I let you know that I'm hosting a series of workshops to help you on all different components of our mental game. I have a different topic each month. And I encourage you to go to KathyHartwood.com. And in the menu bar, there'll be a link for the workshop or the current workshop whenever you're listening to that. Use that as an opportunity to dive a little bit deeper on a topic that resonates with you, that is specific to what you're struggling with or where you think you could change and make a big impact on your golf game. So make sure you check those out at KathyHartwood.com. So today I want to talk about if you're going to have an amazing 2022, what area of your golf game are you going to focus on? And you have four components in your golf game. Most of us just focus on our swing and our short game and working on technique and mechanics. We think that's the most important part. It's certainly a component, but it's not the most important part. Because if you don't have all three components, it doesn't matter how beautiful your swing is or how far you hit it. You're not going to be able to take it on the golf course and perform like you know you can. So one component for sure is your skill set. That means how well you hit the ball right now at this given moment in time, and your ability to take this, what you have right now, out into the golf course. Not necessarily with who you want to be down the road or how well or you want to hit it or how far you want to hit it or how great of a short game you have, but what you have right now and getting out of your own way right now. And for you to get a clear picture of that, that's where I encourage people to go out and hit 10 balls with each club and kind of get an idea of like, well, I can only hit five hybrids, you know, in a fair way out of 10. So I'm going to hit 50% of them in a fair way. Or I three putt four times from 20 feet, right? So it's good data to know because it gives you an opportunity to focus on that area of your game that's not the strongest. We have a tendency to focus on the area of our game that we're most emotionally attached to, or that when we finished a round, had the biggest emotional sting. So in other words, if you hit a driver out of bounds and you end up making an eight, all you're gonna remember is the driver that you hit out of bounds. You're gonna tell yourself the story that you're a horrible driver of the ball. You need to work on your driving. You know, had you done it on the hole before, you would have been in another fairway, found your ball, not a problem, you might have been able to still make par, which you did on the hole with out of bounds. In the meantime, you had five three putts, and really that was the bigger problem. But we don't work on that. We work on the one that stung the most. So it's good to have the data to look at to know what part of your game that you want to focus on. That includes you hitting golf balls or taking lessons, being very intentional about how you practice and what you practice, huge deal. It is not about showing up on the range and clocking in and clocking out and thinking that that's going to have an impact on your golf game. That is not true because you can go out there and spend an hour practicing all the wrong things. How you show up when you practice is very important for you making the most out of those practice sessions. So, yes, one component of your game is your skill set, is your mechanics, your swing, and your short game, but it's not the only one. You also have your fitness and your health, which means your flexibility, your strength, hydration, nutrition, all those things matter when you're trying to improve. So strength could be a big component if you're not strong enough to support the club, or you have a different part of your body that's very weak. Maybe your hands are weak or your wrists are weak, forearms. That can definitely affect your ability to swing the club like you want. If you're not in very good shape, you might get tired on the golf course. Of course, that's gonna affect your score. Hydration, nutrition play a big role in your ability to focus and keep your energy up, right? That's some stuff that you want to take a look at. If you go out there and play golf all hung over and you're dehydrated and you're wondering why you're tired and you can't focus very well, right? That might be a red flag. Totally different person shows up, and then when you're well well rested and hydrated and ate all the right things, right? You can maintain your focus throughout around and your energy level throughout around. If you can't turn your hips or your upper back very far, if they're not very flexible, you're going to seek the path of least resistance in your golf swing, and you might not like where that goes. You're going to start making some funky moves when that happens.

unknown 6:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

If your hips aren't very loose, you might start swaying because you can't turn. You might come out of your posture. You might not finish all the way. You might be finishing on your back foot. Those are things to look at because they play a role in your ability to improve your skill set the way you want and also to maintain your energy level through a whole round. Number three is course management. Now, course management is this is your strategy, going from point A to point B, the T-box to the hole. How can I do that in the least amount of shots? What happens is we get a little mesmerized. We just keep going through the motions, especially if you play the same golf course all the time. We end up not challenging ourselves in that arena in the course management arena. You'll see this. This will show up if you go and play another golf course, right? All of a sudden you go play another golf course, you're like going, oh my gosh, I don't know where to hit it. I didn't know I couldn't hit driver there and it was going to be in a fairway bunker or there's water over there. Now what do I do? Right. Because you haven't challenged your brain enough to start thinking about different strategies about standing up there and looking at every hole like it's a little chess game. Like, how can I get from here over to there in the least amount of shots with what I own today? And that's a big thing because some days then your game is not going to show up. Some days you're like going, you know what? I can't hit driver. I got to hit three wood. I'm not feeling very good about my partial swings today. So I'm going to lay up short. So I'm always in full swing range. My ball's curving a little bit too much. Maybe I don't go for a tucked pin and then short siding myself. I remember my dad telling me he was a really good golfer. I think he broke his age. Like he was in the 200s of and still going strong into his 70s. Really good golfer. But he would tell me, yeah, wasn't my day. I just had to hit knockdowns all day around to keep my ball in play because he wasn't feeling it so much with his full swing. You want to have some go-to shots in your bag so that you can get around the golf course when you're not having your best days. So that you know how to hit it from the pine needles underneath trees. You know how to lay up appropriately, whether to go for a pin or not go for a pin. That's all course strategy. And that takes a little bit of time and playing. We've got to let our ego sometimes take a back seat. If that means you have to hit a five-iron off the T or a hybrid off the T, you have to hit a hybrid off the T. If that means you have to hit three seven irons to get on the green and one over regulation, two-put and walk away with a bogey, that's what you got to do. You know, I had the luxury of playing golf for a living, which when I played when on the women's tour, not so much money, especially when I was playing mini tours. Every shot meant so much. I always used to think about it, every shot was like a tank of gas. I tell my students and clients, I'm like, listen, if every shot was worth money, something that you valued, at that time was a tank of gas for me to get to the next tournament, right? I was going to be very strategic about how I use that shot. I was not going to waste that shot. I was not going to do a high-risk shot, you know, and hit it over the green, put it in the water, or short side myself. It makes you think very differently about the way that you're playing the game. And that's a good tactic for you to go out and try. Go out there and ask yourself, like if every shot was money, what would be the smartest thing for me to do? You know, that's a fun little thing for you to go out and do when you're playing. Just ask yourself, if every shot was money, what would I do right here? Put a value on it that resonates with you. But if every shot was money, what would I do? And you really know how much you trust your game and your golf swing at that moment by the answer you give yourself. If the answer is I'm going for the pin, right, then you're probably feeling pretty good about your swing, especially if it's tucked in the corner. If you're short of the green, let's say you're 30 or 40 yards short of the green, in that roll the sod over it, pig in a blanket, skull it over the green range, right? Then a lot of people don't make that partial swing where we're taking out our sand wedge and we can hit one out of 10 of them up in the air near the pin. The rest of them, we're sculling and chunking. But we keep taking out sand wedge because we haven't thought of a different scenario or situation. So if I would I put people there, most of the time, I'm gonna say 9.9 times out of 10, when I asked somebody if I gave you $10,000 to get the ball on the green here in one shot, what would you do? Because if you got it on the green, then you could two-putt and walk away with not having a big old blow-up hole. What would you do? 20 or 30 yards off the green, $10,000. I'd give you $10,000 to get the ball on the green. What shot are you gonna take? Most people, as long as it's closely motor, is gonna say putt, I'll put it on.

unknown 10:17

Right?

SPEAKER_00 10:18

But our ego most of the time won't let us do that. Your next move might be a hybrid chip, which is a great shot, short of the green when you're in the fairway. Then maybe you're like, all right, I'll bump it on with an eight iron. You'll see how much you trust your game and your swing. If your answer is, I'm gonna open the face on a lob wedge and try and shoot it 30 yards up in the air and land it right now down next to the pin for $10,000. You pretty much trust that shot, I would think. Otherwise, you're just a huge risk taker. But that's something that you can challenge yourself with on your course management. It takes you looking at the course differently and then being really aware afterwards, what could I have done differently so that you can learn, right? So the next time it comes around, you you have more knowledge on how to play that shot. Right? The mental piece is you being able to manage your thoughts and emotions on the golf course so that you can swing the way that you want to swing, so that you can focus and be aware enough to know what is the weakest part of your game and what to practice. When you're on the golf course, you're in a mental state where you can focus and look at how you're gonna play the hole. When you're anxious, you can't think about it. Your brain doesn't give you access to that. The better you are at managing your mental piece of your game, the mental component, how you think on purpose, what you do with the emotions that are created on the golf course, how long they hang around, is going to affect your ability to swing the way you want and manage your mind around the golf course so that you're present and focused. How does it affect your fitness and your health? Well, it's how the story you tell yourself and how important it is, is mental management. Right? If you're telling yourself it's not that big a deal, or you can constantly talk yourself out of either working out or stretching or hydrating or eating the way that you should, that's also mental management. Right? You're listening to that voice in the back of your brain that's telling you it's not important or that I can do something else. Or a whole nother component on why you're hungover or overeating, right? Same deal. Just not going to go into it in this podcast. All right, so those are your four components. You want to look at each one of those individually. Ask yourself, how am I showing up in this area? Am I working on my skill set, on the things that I need to work on, the areas that are costing me the most shots? How often am I reevaluating, going out and hitting 10 shots again? Am I working on the things that are um only I'm emotionally attached to? Or am I actually working on the things that need the work? Number two, how am I showing up for myself, taking care of my body, my flexibility and my strength training, my health, my hydration? Because all those things are going to affect your ability to show up on the golf course. You're gonna have to deal with all the mental drama on all the reasons you're gonna give yourself on not doing it. That's mental management too. Right. And then course management, committing to going out on the golf course and looking at different ways to play the hole. One of the other things, which I love when clubs do this, is you go out and you only get a certain number of golf clubs to play with, right? That's working on your course management skills. You have to look at the hole differently. That's that's a tactic to try. Another thing to do is change your tea boxes that you play. Go play from the forward tees if your ego allows you, or go play from the back tees. You're gonna have to hit different clubs into the green, which makes you look at the golf course that you play all the time from a totally different angle. And number four is your mental piece, which is you listening to this podcast right now and working on how you manage your thoughts and emotions around the game of golf. Are you thinking intentionally? Are you aware of what you're saying to yourself? Do you need to believe different things for you to take your game to the next level? And do you have a plan in place to do that? Having a plan in place on the golf course for you to say the right things to yourself that help you create that state of calm, certain, or confident so that you can make your best swings. All right, my friends, those are the four areas of your golf game: your mechanics and your skill set, fitness and health, course management, and the one that ties it all together, that's integrated in all of it, that doesn't matter how great the rest of it is, if you don't have that fourth component, you are not going to be able to take that on the golf course. And that's your mental management. Check in with yourself on all four of those areas so that you can have your best of your possible. All right, my friends, I'll talk to you next Wednesday. Have a beautiful week. Bye.